Western Mail letters: Tuesday, December 4, 2018

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The draft Brexit withdrawal bill, is by all accounts 585 pages long, and I for one have no idea what it is all about, in fact I very much doubt many MPs or even Theresa May are fully aware of what lurks inside.

However, one thing that is plainly obvious is that it has negligible Parlimentary approval, and for this bill to pass, a majority of MPs will need to support it. Bizarrely Theresa May, can not seem to grasp this simple fact.

The Prime Minister’s complete denial of reality is comparable to the Monty Python scene involving a dead parrot (a remarkable bird the Norwegian Blue, it’s pining for the Fjords etc). As such I believe these proposal should not be labelled as “a Norway plus plus deal” (or whatever the latest is), it should be known simply as “The Norwegian Blue”.

Rhidian Richard

Clydach, Swansea

Plaid approach could backfire

It seems according to Plaid Cymru that the Assembly opposition is not robust enough, regardless of the vote to Leave, for their ambition to stay in EU. This approach could backfire as if they get their wish from a minority standpoint, there will be a reaction from the marginal minority who did not accept the vote for devolution in the first place.

So prior to any hopes for a vote for independence, they may find themselves having to fight off a demand for a further referendum on this issue, and at present there seems to be quite an undercurrent of dissatisfaction in the present governance.

The EU Leaver majority would be a significant factor in this vote and as such it could all go horribly wrong.

Windsor Davies

Blandford , Dorset

They will say, ‘This was their finest hour’

Just a short time ago the wise Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell decided that many should die in Iraq so that others had a choice of who they were governed by; now they are trying to prevent us of a chance of deciding who we are governed by!

Do all 17,410,742 of us have to take to the streets or just the 1,269,501 more than those who still wanted to be governed from overseas, to convince these two that we are not going to sit back and have our democratic rights taken away.

So, let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, so that if our United Kingdom lasts for another thousand years, people will still say, “This was their finest hour”.

Brian Christley

Abergele

Challenge our friends with smart suits

Yet again we are bombarded with the continual rise in train travel prices alongside disasters in aspects of the NHS. The media rightly spend time highlighting the problems. Reporters are dispatched to ride on overcrowded trains and there are regular documentaries following NHS staff struggling to do their jobs.

This, however, does not inform us, as the general public, about the organisation and management of these important national institutions. When it comes to management the reports usually end with a spokesperson for the wealthy managers informing us that they are investing more and more each day in infrastructure and making our railways the best in the world. In respect to the NHS last week yet another hospital trust CEO who has presided over a catastrophe is interviewed outside his palatial home getting in his executive car and telling us he will not resign and he’s the right man to take the trust forward. This usually ends the report.

Why are these people not challenged more and not allowed to move until major questions are answered? Reporters often challenge train staff or NHS staff with questions they should not be answering. This can often be construed as bullying as they are picking on the little people because they are scared of the big guns.

Why in the fly-on-the-wall documentaries, in hospitals on trains and other service industries like energy and water, do the reporters not follow a manager or CEO around for a day or two?

Why do we not see what they do for their money and their bonuses after all in the case of the NHS it’s our money. Why when news programmes put up costs statistics on a fancy chart do, we not see exactly how much money goes into the pockets of managers and shareholders, not percentage figures but actual figures? The train ticket costs up 3% managers salaries up 6%!

My concern is that when they get permission to film, the area of the following management is off the table. If so, shame on all you television producers for not insisting on full access. You especially BBC, you are a public service broadcaster and the NHS is a public service. My second concern is that the BBC executives are too close to the executives of such companies.

A free and hard-hitting media is the backbone of democracy. I am sure if we the public watched these so-called top managers at work, we would be truly outraged. While I do not condone the violence we see in Paris, the French always take to the streets or blockade ports to show that ordinary people can still cause necessary disruption in the pursuit of the truth.

Television producers, I do not want to watch another documentary on the stresses and strains on public service workers or privatised utilities I can witness that for myself every time I visit such places as hard-pressed A&E departments where I see frontline staff working hard. I’d rather see what our friends with smart suits are doing for my money.

Glyn Scott

Barry

BBC has got much too big for its boots

Public Service Broadcasting by the BBC? Not in my estimation.

That might have been true years ago in the halcyon days of Bill and Ben the flowerpot men in the 1950s when first I watched, but not any more, in my view.

How can it be a public service when it broadcasts so much that is to the detriment of our society? Example – this film contains violence sex and strong language, with some drug abuse. You know and I know in a perfect society, the kids are off to bed.

You also know that in this world too often, that is not the case. Oh there are some marvellous things on the telly, a window on the world for many, and there is much to admire in the output of the BBC. However in my mind it has got much too big for its boots.

The sickening part is that we all have to pay for it. A levy on all in the country, unless of course you are over 75. This huge organisation which owns and runs a myriad of magazines from Climbing to Historical , you name it and they will have a finger in the pie, is now hand wring about the over 75s, and the loss of revenue. What a cheek!

We have all read in the press about the massive sums that they pay. Over £1m to Gary Lineker, to Chris Evans over £1m. It is in my opinion a gravy train levied on us all, and it should stop.

Public Service Broadcasting? Take last Saturday night, December 1, 9.15, BBC4. I know thank goodness, most are tuned in to other channels, A deranged woman attacks with a knife, a young man sun bathing on a beach, she stabs him seven times. There is blood everywhere, and it is shown in glorious colour.

Later on two young people take pills in order to experience a good time. Public service, no, I don’t think so.

Howard Robinson

Ebbw Vale

I am a citizen of the world

In reply to Jane Isaac’s letter where she determines that being European is only in the mind. In my heart I am Welsh first and European second.

This is my choice and I will not be dictated to by inward looking so called “Britishers”.

I would love to have a passport that would allow me the freedom to travel and work without visas as it has in the past but this has been taken away from me for some pathetic dream of sovereignty and supposed control of our borders which we already have but choose not to implement. The freedom to explore and to work on our continent freely has been taken away not just from me but from our children and our grand children.

I was proud to be British but even that has been taken away from me as I consider myself to be a citizen of the world and not someone who only attaches whichever label suits their own narrow-minded idea of belonging.

AW Jones

Llandrindod Wells

These people lack enough knowledge

The Brexit call “just get on with it” is one very powerful reason for staying in the EU. “Just get on with it” is the intellectual battle cry of UK citizens who have not the foggiest idea of the huge damage which Brexit will do to the living standards in Britain, and to the shared principles of international cooperation.

There is only one explanation of citizens who talk in this Trump/Farage style, saying nothing but the bluster of impatience, because they lack knowledge enough to recognise the principles to safeguard our planet.